The Best Fence Material for Coastal Georgia

A fence that might last 20 years in Atlanta can look worn after 6 on St. Simons Island. The Golden Isles are a sight to behold but boy are they hard on building materials. Taste has nothing to do with a good choice versus a bad one out there. It's years.

The badness is caused by 3 things: Salt, moisture and wind.

What the coast actually does to a fence

Salt gets dumped on everything from the sky as mist. It is corrosive to steel. It has a field day on cheap fasteners. It's not usually the fence boards that fail first. It's the screws, nails, hinges, and latches.

Moisture is always on. High humidity, summer thunderstorms and lots of rain. Water table is close to the surface, in the low lying areas and marsh front properties. Wood holds moisture longer here. The area where the post is in the ground is where it starts to rot.

Wind peaks during hurricane time (June to November) but a decent coastal storm can come and test your fence at any time. A 6' solid privacy fence is like a sail. It transfers all the action into your posts.

And... the sun. The UV degrades and embrittles the plastic. Also dries out the wood. We have a lot of sun.

Wood

Southern yellow pine, pressure treated, is the workhorse wood on this coast. And for good reason. It's cheap. It's everywhere. It matches live oaks and Spanish moss. And you can fix it one board at a time.

And it will also demand more from you. Expect to have to clean and seal every once in awhile. Expect some cupping and twisting as the boards dry out. Expect the posts to call the shots about the life of the fence.

If you buy it right, it does ok. What to get right:

• Use ground contact treatment for anything in the ground. Not above ground. This isn't a detail. This is the whole ballgame.
• Hot dipped galvanized or stainless fasteners. Those electroplated screws will rust out and stain your boards before the timber is done.
• Deep posts, in properly placed concrete. And make the hole so water is draining away not puddling around the post.

Cedar is available and won't rot out as bad. Big $$ premium. Most folks around here use treated pine and use the difference to buy better hardware. See more about species and styles on our wood fencing page.

Best for: privacy on the cheap. Traditional looks. Long runs where you want repairability.

Vinyl

Vinyl is the low maintenance solution. In fact it's even more of a solution on the coast than inland. It's not bothered by salt. It's not rotted by moisture. Insects ignore it. Spray it down with a hose and basically that's about it for maintenance.

Yes, there are caveats. But the caveats aren't that bad. Cheap vinyl will get brittle in the Georgia sun over the years and crack when it hits something. But quality vinyl panels with UV inhibitors don't. You can't invisibly fix it. You replace a damaged panel, not patch it. The vinyl privacy panels are fully solid so they'll catch all the wind. So you have to be good with the posts and post setting.

It's initially more expensive than wood. But often it's cheaper (over 15 years) if you're in a salt affected lot. Check out vinyl fencing for styles and colors.

Best for: owners that don't want to worry about the fence. Pool surrounds. Bright clean looks.

Aluminum

The ultimate material for the Georgia coastline. Aluminum does not rust. The powdercoated aluminum does a great job of resisting the salt air which steel cannot. You see a lot of the black ornamental fences around the marsh and island pools for this reason.

It's open so the wind just blows through it. This is great for an exposed lot during hurricane season. That's why it withstands the storms that knock down the solid fences. It doesn't block your view. Which is important with marsh front or water views. Often that's the whole reason to have the property. It's light, strong and virtually no maintenance.

The bad? No privacy. You can see through it by design. It's the most expensive option per foot in most residential applications.

Don't mistake it for wrought iron or steel. Similar in appearance from 10 feet away but very different in the salt air. Check our aluminum fencing page for the difference.

Best for: marsh and water views, pool enclosures, exposed, windy lots. Any application you want security without the wall.

Chain link

Plain, effective, cheap. Galvanized chain link isn't bad. Black or green vinyl coated chain link better for salty environment, much less industrial looking.

Weakness is the fittings, hardware for tension, steel. Rust if not correctly coated. Like everything here, the fence only outlives the hardware if the hardware was selected for the environment.

Best for: dog runs, back boundaries, utility areas, large areas on the cheap.

Farm and field fencing

It is a different ballgame when you are talking acreage out in Glynn, McIntosh and Camden counties. For big spans you can go with the woven wire or field fence with treated posts for a tiny fraction per foot. Then it is more about containment of livestock and staying upright in a storm than a 'pretty' look. Check out field fencing.

So which one

Privacy on a budget? Treated wood with good hardware. Privacy and set it and forget it? Vinyl. Got a view you want to keep? Pool enclosure? Windy lot? Aluminum. A lot of ground to fence at a low cost? Chain link or field wire.

You know what? On this coast it's more important under the material than the material. Post depth, post spacing, concrete, metal in the fasteners will determine if your fence is still up in 15 years. We've seen too many good materials fail with bad installation to act like otherwise.

Interested in what our straight-up opinion is of your specific lot, your exposure and your budget? Get a free quote or call us (912) 674-0619. We'll tell you what we'd put in if it were our yard. Check out our St. Simons Island page for more info on the areas we cover.